Exclusive: MAD Takes Down Dennis Rodman’s North Korean Adventure

Recently, Dennis Rodman went to North Korea. We’re not entirely sure who initiated this desperate bid for attention, or who precisely it was supposed to benefit, but it was enough to earn Rodman a questionable accolade from MAD Magazine as one of the dumbest people, places and things of 2013.

For those unfamiliar, MAD, as part of it’s year-end issue, takes on the most moronic things to happen over the preceding year. If you’ve got a subscription, and you can click the link to get one (if you don’t, I’ll be forced to be Sergio Aragones’ slave-boy, so remember that), some of these aren’t a surprise. And this is usually an issue worth reading because it’s where MAD really brings out the knives on people who’ve got it coming. Like, for example, a rather blunt discussion of whether or not Mr. Bad-As-I-Wanna-Be deserves that Nobel Peace Prize he wants. So at number ten:

To be fair, we understand how dealing with a nightmarish, controlling weirdo can completely warp your perception of reality and create a bizarre sense of entitlement in anybody. That said, it’s really unfair to compare Kim Jong-Un to Phil Jackson. Jong-un deserves better.

You don’t know who or why? They went because VICE asked a LOT of different basketball celebrities to go and Dennis was the only one willing. They needed him to convince the transit they were coming for a sporting event and not a journalistic look at North Korea. It was for an AMAZING episode of their show on HBO that was groundbreaking in the depth americans have made it into north korea.

Yeah, I read the VICE coverage. I wasn’t impressed for various reasons (VICE’s best work can be poisoned by their whole “LOOKIT HOW AUDACIOUS WE ARE!” attitude.) And it doesn’t really explain Rodman’s ongoing and rather odd attempts to buddy up with a rather terrifying regime.